“It is entirely premature to speculate about” what McDonald’s plans to do with the trademark, company spokeswoman Terri Hickey said in an email. “We routinely file intent to use trademark applications as a regular course of business.”

The company, which recently saw its worst monthly same-store sales decline in more than a decade, could use brunch as a way to extend breakfast hours and attract more customers, especially in the millennial demographic, industry watchers said.

Breakfast is “a big strength for [McDonald's],” said Elizabeth Friend, a senior Euromonitor food services analyst, adding that McDonald’s has the biggest share of the breakfast market among its rivals. “Customers are very loyal when it comes to breakfast. They are looking to shore up their position to make sure they have the lead there and looking to grow their brand in the area that’ll appeal to the millennials. Millennials love their brunch. (McDonald’s) wants to encourage more traffic on the weekends.”

Breakfast is consistently cited as a better-performing business for McDonald’s. The company is already expanding its breakfast offerings in Europe and Asia. The company has said its core menu, which includes the Egg McMuffin, Big Mac and other popular offerings, represents 40% of its total sales.

McDonald’s and other fast food players have lost customer visits to so-called fast casual players like Chipotle
/quotes/zigman/395806/delayed/quotes/zigman/395806/lastsaleCMG partly because of lagging customer service and the absence of personalized menus. But breakfast remains an area where Chipotle and others like it don’t yet compete.

Meanwhile, even though U.S. consumers have cut back on their overall eating out, they ate out for breakfast with increasing frequency last year for the fourth consecutive year, according to The NPD Group. So far this year through July, breakfast visits rose 3%, versus flat for all meals industrywide, NPD data showed. The fact has spurred McDonald’s rivals from Taco Bell
/quotes/zigman/303422/delayed/quotes/zigman/303422/lastsaleYUM to Chic-fil-A to expand their breakfast offerings.

“If there’s a way they can figure out breakfast for later, that could be very successful for them,” Friend said. “There’s some serious operational challenges and that’s why it’s not done in the past.”

Lovers of the Egg McMuffin will be happy they don’t have to make the 10:30 a.m. cut off.

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About Behind the Storefront

Behind the Storefront is a blog about all things retail. It’s aimed at investors, shoppers and anyone else with a passion for learning about what drives consumer behavior. Hosted by Andria Cheng, Behind the Storefront will cover the business, brands and shopping behavior that’s behind some of the biggest companies, and largest employers, in the world. You can reach Andria at Acheng@marketwatch.com.